Well I can now officially say I am settled in, since my craft room is now set up. I was really spoiled with my last craft room with the size of it but the view of from this one is better. I now can look out the window and see the back yard and beyond, where as at the last house my window was under the deck so not much of a view. Unfortunately the lighting in the last and this one are not the best. I will say I do have more natural light coming in but over all the lighting is not great and I hope to improve in the future. I am certainly not complaining as I am just happy to have the space. I am going to walk you through my craft room and how I organize it. So lets get started….

So as you can see everything is out of the boxes and I had to add a little extra to this room – a playroom. Gavin got a new train table for his birthday and the only place it could go was here. I hope this arrangement works and allows me a bit more time in my craft room while Gavin keeps busy 🙂

I used all the space I could including the exposed studs. I mounted a light, hung the baby monitor, and used it as a shelf for all my CTMH Inks so they are at eye level.

I changed my table last year so that it is one I stand at instead of sitting. I really like this as I can move and reach everything I need and not feel sedentary. My table is actually composed of 5 pieces. Here is a look at each of them.

The two ends are bookshelves I purchased at Walmart, if memory serves me correctly. They give me a bit more space for books and other items. The other side has all my how-to-books, sketches and magazines.

This is the center part – they are two rolling carts I purchased at Michaels. Each unit holds 7 of the 12 x 12 paper bins and I can then stack a few more on top. I keep all my non CTMH papers in these and they are divided based on colors and then common themes. What I mean by common themes? There are certain papers I love to scrapbook ~ Halloween/Fall, Christmas/Winter, Boy and pets; so I have bins with the papers that fit these themes.

My top is actually a melamine covered board I purchased at Home Depot or Lowes. We then added trim to the edges but unfortunately the movers damaged it so I will have to re-do some of the trim. On my table top I use a cork pad as it helps to keep small items from sliding a round. I also have my new CTMH All- purpose mat on the left. I also keep my current catalog out so I can reference easily.

This is my new piece of furniture – Kallax shelving from Ikea. These shelves are great as they do hold 12 x 12 paper. As you can see this is what I used to store below. It works perfectly for my Silhouette and Cricut on top.

I used this shelving to house all my Sterilite sheaves which I have had for years. The bottom shelf hold some of my non-CTMH stamp sets and adhesives. The middle shelf is my glitter, heat embossing, photo paper, cards, and blocks. This shelf works great for my printer and large paper cutter which sit on top.

This is in between the the two long shelves behind my desk. These are from Michaels and the bottom one I use for scrap pieces of my CTMH cardstock. I will save my scraps providing they are of a usable size and they work great when you just need a piece for a card or on a layout. In the open cube I have retired CTMH paper. On top of this stack are two plastic drawers which hold my Stickles and re-inkers.

Well this is the first part of my new craft room, stay tuned as I will post part two later this week. If you have questions about how I organize things please let me know.

Well we have arrived in Colorado and the movers finally arrived yesterday. We had originally though they would be here on Wednesday but better late than never. We have been working over 12 hours the past two days to get everything put away. The good news it the house is beginning to really feel like home and we have almost tackled all the boxes. When we have moved in the past the movers have assisted in unpacking, as it is part of the move package. We were told that would be the case this time; however, they did not unbox a single box. So that made it a bit more difficult but we rose to the challenge and have made a huge dent. There are only a few areas that need to be unpacked and one is my craft room. I am hoping to begin tackling it tomorrow when Gavin goes down for his nap. I though I would share my journey with you, showing you the before and after photos. I am also going to show how I organize some of my craft supplies along the way. So lets start with the before pictures.

As you can probable tell my craft space is smaller and it is not a nice finished room like I had last time. But that is okay as I have a craft space and I have more natural light in this room. I will make the most of it and it gives me the opportunity to reorganize it which is something I love to do. It is taking all of my power not to go down and hit it hard. Unfortunately my body is exhausted and I am moving slow so I will need to take a break and resume tomorrow afternoon. I will post photos of my progress and show how I organize things.

I know there are many Cricut lovers out there. So I wanted to share a couple youtube videos which you may find helpful.

Here is a great video to show you some of the great 3-dimnetional elements you can create using your cricut cartridges. You can use these items to add to your scrapbook pages, cards or to make gifts for friends and family.

Have you heard about Cricut Craft Room but did not know where to start? Watch this short video and it can help you get started. By using the Cricut Craft room you are just opening the doors to your creative ability.

About Me

My name is Catherine (Cat) Nowak and I am a Close To My Heart Independent Consultant in Arvada, CO. I am a full time mom to one boy and wife to my suportive and wonderful husband of 18 years. Prior to becoming a mom I was a practicing veterinarian. I am now enjoying being a mom and consultant for Close to My Heart. I have always been creative and loved art since I was a kid. I began scrapbooking over 20 years ago before I knew it was a real thing. Now I love jumping into my craft room at any chance I can to create a page, a card or anything that I can create.

Let me know if I can inspire you or help you with your creative inspirations. Please contact me if I can help you in anyway at catscrapbooking@gmail.com